


By the Bonfire

by lathalea, Shrimpsthings



Series: Dwarf Tales [5]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Blue Mountains | Ered Luin, Bofur likes his booze, First Meetings, Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Nori would steal everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28325499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lathalea/pseuds/lathalea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shrimpsthings/pseuds/Shrimpsthings
Summary: Have you ever wondered how Bofur and his Broadbeam kin joined Thorin's company? What if it all started with an unexpected friendship that developed into something more?
Relationships: Bofur/Nori (Tolkien)
Series: Dwarf Tales [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1838215
Comments: 8
Kudos: 6





	By the Bonfire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Estethell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estethell/gifts).



> Happy Holidays **Estethell**!
> 
> This is a little something from **Shrimpsthings** (art) and **Lathalea** (text).  
> You're a wonderful person and we know how much you like Nofur so Santa Balin has a special goodnight tale to tell you before you go to sleep 😊

Wood crackled merrily in the fireplace. It was a dark winter evening and the forest cabin they were staying at was surrounded by a snowy landscape. Wrapped in a warm blanket and looking at the flames, Bofur had to admit that it was a very cozy evening. He was almost dozing off when a familiar figure joined him under the blanket.

“Nori, is that you?” Bofur asked sleepily.

“Who else?” his red-haired friend replied cheekily and sat beside him, his shoulder brushing against Bofur’s arm. “Were you expecting another dwarf?”

“May I remind you we’re snowed in, and by the looks of it, there is another snowstorm coming…”  
“So it is you and me against the foul weather and wilderness again?” smirked Nori, filling his pipe with tobacco.

“Aye, it’s our fate apparently,” Bofur admitted, toying with his pipe as well. Their evening pipe smoking became a habit for them. Snowed in or not, he could not have imagined spending this time cut off from the world with anyone else than Nori. They were friends, and they grew even closer in the last months. There was something about this charming scoundrel of a dwarf that made Bofur smile every time he thought of him. A true friend. Before he met Nori, he never had one and hadn’t even known what he was missing. Looking at his companion sitting so close to him, he held onto that thought and felt the pleasant warmth spilling in his chest. 

“Remember the first time we met?” Nori asked after a pause.

“We spent a night under my blanket too,” Bofur chuckled. “My hat got torn and it was all your fault!”

“No, it wasn’t! It wasn’t my fault you decided to enrage that wolverine instead of giving him your supper!” his friend protested.

“I thought he was going to attack you!” he retorted. A new bickering session was on the horizon and he was looking forward to their usual word sparring.

“No, you got it all wrong, Bofur! You didn’t even know I was there! The animal was attacking you!”

“By Mahal’s beard, you are remembering it all wrong! You were the one in danger!”

“Let me remind you how it really was…”

***

“Hold the thief!”

“He went that way!”

“I saw him over there!”

“After him!”

Nori was fast at lightning. A few more turns along the underground walkways of Belegost and he was running out through the gates, leaving his pursuers and their angry shouts behind. The loudest and angriest shouts belonged to a relentless warrior called Dwalin, the captain of the local guard. A real pain in the ass, if you asked Nori. Dwalin interrupted him as he was just minding his own business, introducing social equality to this cruel world: taking from the rich, giving to the poor. And by poor Nori meant himself, of course.

He had two brothers who relied on him so the last thing he could do was to get caught. Dwalin and his “boy scouts” knew all the nooks and crannies of the dwarven city too well so there was only one thing Nori could do to outrun them at that time. That meant leaving Belegost and heading towards the backwoods of Ered Luin.

This was the reason why he won this round of their never-ending game. Crouching among the bramble bushes, he sniggered in amusement when Dwalin along with several of the guards were running past him deeper into the wilderness, unaware of the fact that they had been hoodwinked by him. Again. Nori smirked. Clearly, Dwalin was getting old.

Their angry shouts faded away after some time and Nori decided to return to the city and hunker down for a few days in one of his usual hideouts. He marched and marched among the trees, humming one of his usual tunes, but the forest seemed to stretch as far as his eye could see and the trail leading back to Belegost was nowhere to be found.

It was getting dark and he didn’t like those grey clouds above him. Colds gusts of wind chilled him to the bone. His stomach rumbled and the trees loomed over him ominously. Nori had to face it. He was the best thief in Ered Luin, but not the greatest forest ranger. He was a city dwarf, after all. And now he was lost.

“Dori is going to kill me,” he thought, recalling the promise he gave his older brother. He was supposed to finally start behaving like a respectable dwarf and find a good, steady trade. Unfortunately for Dori, Nori couldn’t stop himself from doing what he knew best. He had skilled fingers and a clever mind but being an artisan or a jeweller was not as thrilling as his favorite trade: reacquisition of goods.

When the first heavy drops of rain fell on him, he mumbled a curse. It was almost dark and it looked like he would have to spend the night in that inhospitable forest. Nori looked ahead, trying to pierce the darkness with his gaze in order to find shelter when a flickering glow danced in the corner of his eye.

“A bonfire? Here, in this wilderness?” he frowned but his curiosity and a possibility of warming up by a roaring fire quickly led him towards that mysterious light.

He reached a clearing in the woods and hid behind a tree. The bonfire he saw from afar illuminated the surroundings quite well and Nori realized that he actually reached the edge of this accursed forest. There was a small grassy patch in front of him and across it, a huge wall of rock prevented the woods from spreading further. He was at the foot of a mountain peak. That was when he heard someone shouting.

His keen eyes quickly turned towards the source of light. It was located in a small cave carved by erosion. A dwarf in a funny-looking hat was there, waving a sharpened stick at something.

“Shoo! This is my supper! You won’t get even a bite! Go away or I’ll… I’ll make a carpet out of you!” the dwarf exclaimed. Only then did Nori notice a predator crouching in the darkness. An angry growl told him that the beast was ready to strike.

At that very moment, the large animal pounced on the dwarf, pinning him to the ground. A cry of pain was heard and, at the same time, Nori’s knife whooshed through the air, hitting the target instantly. It was a wolverine. The animal roared in surprise and then pulled back, darting into the forest with a loud howl.

“Ah well, there goes my knife,” Nori sighed, quickly approaching the dwarf. He was really fond of that blade.

The dwarf was lying sprawled on his back on the stone floor of the cave. The beast’s claws grazed his shoulder and his leg was injured as well. His strange hat with pointy ear flaps was thrown aside nearby and Nori saw that two thick brown braids drooped at the sides of his face while his dark upturned moustache contrasted with his pale skin.

“Don’t move, let me check your wounds,” Nori said, taking a quick look at them.

“Is it very bad?” the dwarf hissed through his clenched teeth. Nori had to admit he liked his sparkly dark brown eyes. Someone with such a friendly gaze definitely can’t be a member of Dwalin’s guard. Besides, he didn’t look like a warrior but rather like a simple craftsman of some sort.

“I’ve seen worse. It will sting a bit,” said Nori, taking out his hip flask and pouring some of its contents on the wounds. He sighed in relief. They didn’t look bad.

“Argh! Do you want to kill me? If so, bring that four-legged monster back, his bite didn’t hurt as bad as this!” the dwarf objected to the treatment.

“Lie still! I’m disinfecting your wound!” Nori exclaimed, trying to restrict the movements of his patient.

“I’d rather disinfect the inside of my stomach with that medicine of yours! Do I smell aquavit?” the dwarf’s attention suddenly turned to a more pleasant subject.

“Aye, my cousin makes the best caraway aquavit in Belegost!”

The dwarf looked at him with narrowed eyes. “You don’t mean Kjartan the Red, do you?”

“That is exactly whom I mean!” the red-haired thief admitted.

“Mahal be praised! Give me that!” the dwarf pulled himself up with a hiss, snatched the flask from Nori’s hand, and took a large gulp. “Ahhh… That’s better!”

“Hey! That’s mine!” Nori protested, snatching his property back. The flask was noticeably lighter than before.

“Are you denying me the medicine I dearly need?! Do you want me to die here of blood poisoning?” the dwarf made an innocent face, his wounds temporarily forgotten.

“Something tells me you’re more interested in drinking the _medicine_ more than in me patching you up!” Nori raised his voice. “I’m not spending the night with a dead dwarf by my side in this horrible forest!”

Nori’s stomach chose this exact moment to growl loudly. His wounded companion burst out in laughter.

“Alright, alright. I’ll let you clean my wounds and then we’ll eat. There is roasted meat by the fire. Oh, and my name is Bofur, by the way.”

***

The rainstorm came just after they finished their meal. They huddled for warmth in the farthest corner of the cave, sharing Bofur’s blanket. There were many hours until dawn.

“Thank you for saving my life, Nori,” whispered the wounded dwarf, looking at his torn hat in his hands.

“Think nothing of it. We dwarves have to stick up for each other. You’d do the same for me,” he grinned. “Here, take another sip, it will keep you warm.”

Bofur nodded and returned the flask to Nori after taking a sip. “So, what brings a city dwarf like you into the forest?”

“Ah, it’s actually a funny story,” the thief smiled sheepishly. “I had a small misunderstanding with Dwalin...”

“The Bear? You had a ‘misunderstanding’ with the Bear himself and you survived?!” Bofur’s eyes widened.

Nori chuckled at the nickname. It fitted the grumpy captain of the guard very well. “Let’s just say I’m a natural sprinter, very dangerous on short distances… and Dwalin is not.”

Loud laughter filled the cave. “You have to tell me all about it! I want to hear it all!”

“There’s nothing to talk about…”

“Come on, the night is young! It’s not like we’re getting anywhere in this weather,” Bofur coaxed him with a wide smile. His cheeks finally gained some color and there were sparks of joy dancing in his eyes. Somehow Nori felt it difficult to say no.

“Very well. But then you’ll have to tell me how you found yourself in this place.”  
“A story for a story,” Bofur agreed eagerly.

And so their first night of exchanging stories from their lives began.

***

“... and this is exactly how it happened!” finished Nori with a triumphant tone in his voice.

“Well, perhaps… But it’s your word against mine,” admitted Bofur hesitantly. Nori always found his friend’s inability to admit error very cute. Both of them chuckled and Nori suddenly realized that their faces were very close to each other. He could feel the heat of Bofur’s shoulder and thigh pressed against him. Their smiles faltered simultaneously.

“I’ll…,” Bofur cleared his throat, suddenly jumping up, the blanket falling to the floor. “I’ll go and make some hot tea for us,” he averted his gaze and quickly moved to the stove.

Nori sighed. He knew he couldn’t delay it any longer. It was time. He had to make himself say these words, even if it would cost him their friendship. Since the first time they met, Bofur’s company was the thing he started cherishing more than any gems or even golden candlesticks straight from Rivendell. And his friend had the right to know how he felt.

“Bofur,” Nori started, holding the warm mug of tea in his hands. They both moved to sit on one of their beds now. “We’ve known each other for a while now.”  
“A rather long while, if you ask me!” Bofur grinned.

“There is something… something I want you to know… something I feel…” Nori tried to find the words to voice his thoughts, but his mind went blank.

“What is it, Nori? Is something wrong?” Bofur looked at him with concern on his face.

“There is one thing that I’d really like to do. Just one thing. And I’ve wanted to do it for a very long time, but now I have finally the courage to ask.”

“And what that might be?” his friend asked curiously, his dark brown moustache moving upwards as he smiled encouragingly.

“You know my trade…” Nori continued slowly. Suddenly his throat felt parched so he took a sip of the tea.

“Aye, ‘reacquisition of goods’ as you call it!” Bofur admitted. “I call it ‘the art of stealing’,” he deadpanned.

“Exactly. That is why I would like to ask you… Would you allow me to steal a kiss from you?” Nori swallowed nervously.

“It took you long enough! “ Bofur laughed heartily, his eyes brightening. “I thought you’d never ask!”

**Author's Note:**

> How did you like our little story?  
> Comments and Kudos are more than welcome!
> 
> Thank you!  
> xxx


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